Tour Day 10 Visiting Small Town Canada July 4 2010

I am pretty sure I am loosing my sense of smell or I am just getting used to this whole blogging in a bathroom thing. I would like to think that moments like thee will make me more humble in the future, but in the immediate future they just make me smell like an old truck stop.

Let me start by say today my brain is kind of fried I did not eat lunch so I am missing one of my three huge meals a day so that may explain why my thoughts are a little all over the map.

The ride today was one that saw its ups and its downs both metaphorically and literally. Yes there are no passes or large steep inclines but the rolling hills are pretty brutal. You se them coming for miles and go “o no another one”. What made the first 70k even more special was the nice head wind that was beating us up pretty good from the get go.


When we stopped for out snack after 70k we saw the rain clouds appearing right above our heads so we knew it was time to book it. Before we left I made a few small changes to the bike to hopefully make my butt hate me a little less. Let me tell you it worked. My butt is 110% better my left hand has all movement back to it, all the things that were wrong have been solved. My biggest concern after we set off was where the heck did one of my ear bugs for my headphones go. I had a panic attack because I am cheap and refuse to buy anything new if I don’t have to. My mind was thinking “Evan two months without music what are you going to do”. Luckily Olivier found them for me and solved my mini panic attack.

The nice thing with the storm clouds is it caused the winds to shit in our favour (for the most part). We had a good tail wind for the last 90% on the ride which allowed us to bump up our average speed from a snails pace, as well the roads were a little more level. What about the other 10% you ask? Well it was the worst crosswind I have ridden in to date, but I am sure not the worst one I am going to experience. Because the bike and the profile of a barn you literally have to lean it into the wind so that you don’t tip over or take out your riding mate.

After 150k we were beat so we stopped at a little town called Bassano. I hope this little description tells you how small this town is. The general hospital was the size of a middle class home, the dental office is in a portable trailer, and the main street literally had no cars on it. Luckily we did not have a toothache and all we needed was food and a campground. The camp ground is a little weird as well because it is a self check in so we are hoping that we are out of town before the guy comes to check us out because that means we cant treat ourselves to breakfast.

As a side note I did have one weird moment on the bike today. My mom was right when she said it would hit you at the weirdest times. I was sitting looking up and a gradual 2km climb and suddenly I thought why am I here? Why am I not riding with Kev and the guys? Why am I not at a movie night with Kristi and the gang? Once I got to Bassano though I quickly realized this is an experience of a lifetime with two other guys that I would not trade for the world.
Trip Distance: 167.24km
Ride Time: 7:20hr
Avg. Speed: 22.78km/h
Total Distance: 1286km
Total Ride Time 68:24hr
Destination: Bassano, Alberta

P.S. Three showers in three days something must be going wrong. I aslo frogot to mention the coolest thing I saw today. On one side of the road a field of daisies km's long. On the other side A few Oil pumping rigs with nothing around them. Only in alberta.